"When I see a pregnant woman in the UK, I think, 'how lovely, she looks so well.' When I see a pregnant woman in Africa, I think, 'are you going to survive this?'"

Angela Gorman is the founder of UK-based charity Life for African Mothers. LFAM's aim is to reduce the risks associated with childbearing in sub-Saharan Africa where, according to AMREF UK, a woman is 600 times more likely to die from pregnancy-related conditions than in the United Kingdom. UNICEF figures show that whilst one in 55 women will die in childbirth in North Africa and the Middle East, the figure south of the Sahara is one in 13. Furthermore, for every fatality, another 30 women suffer injury, infection or disability as a result of their pregnancy – resulting in a total of 15 million women per year seriously harmed in the process of creating life.

These figures are troubling. But LFAM's records, along with Angela's considerable experience, paint a yet more vivid picture of what it means to be pregnant in Africa. "Here you can see the hospital is lacking basic equipment," she says, narrating a video. "Are you squeamish?" A young woman is undergoing a caesarean. The surgeon's hands are washed in rainwater from the roof. Surgical tools are boiled in a pressure cooker, gloves rinsed out in the sink. Swabs are squeezed of blood and replaced, and as the doctor removes two still infants from the womb, the mother begins to wake. Her insufficiently measured anaesthesia is wearing off whilst surgery is still underway. "If she is lucky, she will be given paracetamol," says Angela, "this is not unique."

At the turn of the century, 193 UN member states met to discuss important international development issues. Eight Millennium Development Goals were agreed upon, one of which was to improve maternal health. However, progress towards targets of reducing maternal mortality by three quarters and achieving universal access to healthcare – both by 2015 - has been slow, particularly in sub-Saharan Africa. A UN Summit report released in 2010 classified maternal mortality as remaining 'unacceptably high'.

According to UNICEF, over half of maternal deaths in the developing world are caused by post-partum haemorrhage (heavy bleeding after childbirth) and hypertension (high blood pressure) – of which pre-eclampsia and eclampsia are varieties. Haemorrhage increases the risk of hypertension four-fold, so these two problems are inextricably linked. It is almost unheard of for a mother to die from these conditions in the UK, where drugs for their treatment are widely available.

LFAM began sending care packages to centres in sub-Saharan Africa containing magnesium sulphate (for eclampsia) and misoprostol (for haemorrhage) in 2007. One dose costs less than a postage stamp. In the past two years alone, 200,000 doses have been shipped – enough to save 50,000 lives. LFAM also runs a midwife training programme, which sends midwives to Africa to engage in community 'skill sharing'. However, there are simply not enough funds to provide help on the scale needed across the continent.

The World Health Organisation states skilled care during childbirth is 'key to reducing mortality' – but also estimates over 23,000 skilled healthcare workers leave Africa annually, for a decent wage and a better life abroad. Without commitment from Africa's governments, this problem will continue to grow.

It is not just skills that are lacking in Africa; women are often treated as second-class citizens. Angela has witnessed abuse of women at the hands of their communities, their families and even their doctors. One obstetrician, when reprimanded during a training visit for performing an episiotomy (a procedure for widening the vagina) incorrectly and without anaesthetic, responded simply, "African women like pain."

Such attitudes will not change overnight, but by providing women with the basic care they need to give life safely, LFAM hopes to empower them. The charity's Memorandum of Understanding stipulates recipients must not know their medicines came from a charity. "What message does it send when your government will not pay for the basic medicine you need to survive childbirth?" exclaims Angela, "That you are expendable!"

One of the sharpest declines in maternal mortality rates ever recorded was in Honduras, between the years 1990 and 1997. Following a study which revealed the county's maternal mortality ratio was four times the previous estimate, Honduras' Ministry of Health put into effect an emergency action plan. Monies were dedicated to the provision of clinics, programmes, health workers and medication, and in less than a decade the ratio fell by 38%, to 108 deaths per 100,000 live births (UNICEF).

Can Africa mirror this success? It is Angela's hope that through continued provision of midwife training and essential medication, LFAM's work will convince African governments to commit funds to the cause. "It costs the world 15 billion dollars a year to lose these women. To save them would cost just five. Women produce 70% of the wealth in sub-Saharan Africa. They work, earn and care for their children. Even if not on humanitarian grounds, governments should be saving these women on economic ones."

There is a saying, 'death is a part of life in Africa'. But it is no less painful, no less real. There are no safety nets, financial or legal. The death of a mother plunges a family into poverty and increases the risk of death among her infants tenfold. The issue of maternal mortality in Africa may seem insurmountable. But Angela believes the way in which it can be most simply and immediately combated is by providing women with the care and medicines they need, free of charge.

"Is giving birth the most dangerous thing an African woman can do? Without a doubt. If you add the fatalities from the Haitian earthquake in 2010 to those of the Asian tsunami in 2004, you still don't reach the number of women who die as the result of pregnancy every year," says Angela. "550,000 - with no headlines. No worldwide call for aid. If 550,000 men were dying every year, someone would have sat up and done something."